And if you don’t have the Namecoin wallet, Get the installer HERE After installing, make sure you’re connected to the Internet and allow the wallet to sit running for 3-5 hours until it’s totally updated. MeowBit will NOT work without the updated wallet running.

If you’d prefer to get the wallet without the installer from the namecoin.info site you can get it here download links are on the top right of that linked page. You want “Windows binary.” Unzip and install it by clicking on file namecoin-qt.exe.)

(NOTE to users: if you’d installed a previous version of MeowBit, uninstall the old version first. Click on desktop kitty to open MeowBit monitor. Stop Service. Go into system tray. Right-click on kitty, exit MeowBit. go to Windows Start / Control Panel, Programs and Features / click MeowBit to uninstall. Then you can install new version.)

(IF NORTON THINKS IT’S A VIRUS BECAUSE IT DOESN’T RECOGNIZE IT, TURN NORTON OFF, AND RE-DOWNLOAD IT, AND LATER TELL NORTON TO ALLOW IT. MeowBit contains no viruses, spyware, adware or malware. It is GNU-licensed, Free Software, source code here, and anyone can vet it. However, the 2014 version of Norton is overly nanny and will delete new programs that aren’t recognized. Info about this on the Norton site, here. This is also true of some other anti-virus programs, like AVG.)

NOTE: You have to have the Namecoin wallet running while running MeowBit in order to be able to use Dot-Bit websites.

(If you’re on Linux, please use FreeSpeechMe instead of MeowBit, though FreeSpeechMe only works on Firefox. MeowBit works on ALL browsers. And if you’re on Mac, well….We’re sorry you’re on a Mac. As Richard Stallman said, “Steve Jobs made jail cool.”)

The link to the MeowBit install file is lower down the page, after some important info you’ll need to know.

PLEASE READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE INSTALLING.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

MeowBit INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
We haven’t heard of any issues, but if you have any Namecoin in your wallet, be SURE to back it up to another hard drive or computer before installing anything that interacts directly with the wallet.

If you were viewing Dot-Bit domains before using the clunky and insecure alternate-DNS servers workaround, change back to your old default DNS servers before installing MeowBit.

Disable (or disable and remove) FreeSpeechMe if you have it installed as a plug-in in Firefox. Restart Firefox. You should NOT be able to surf dot-bit addresses.

Close Firefox and any other browsers.

Depending on your computer’s settings, you may or may not get a Windows firewall warning, when installing Namecoin or when installing MeowBit. If you do, click “Allow Access”, then the “Close” button:

Depending on your firewall settings, you may get no request, you may get one request, or you may get several such requests in a row, one right after the other, or a few moments apart, for several components of the Namecoin wallet and/or MeowBit. You will have to click “Allow Access” for each one you get. If a Windows firewall warning for any of these components ever comes up again, click “Allow Access” again.

In Windows 8, it will likely be the User Account Control instead of Windows Firewall. Hit the “Yes” button to allow.

You have to have the Namecoin wallet running while running MeowBit in order to be able to use Dot-Bit websites.

Click the kitty cat icon on the desktop:

It will install and pop up this window:

You may have variations of blue and red icons, but none will be green immediately.

If “Install Service” button appears, then press that button.

If “Start Service” button appears, then press that button.

Icons should soon start turning green:

Once the are all green…

…open any browser and try surfing some Dot-Bit sites. Here are few to try:

Here’s a page with a long list of more to try. They may not all work (they aren’t always all up) but if some of them work, MeowBit is working.

You can now delete the installer file from your desktop, unless you want to install MeowBit on more computers.

You will be able to access the program monitor through the kitties that the installer sprinkles around your computer. The one on the desktop is to start the program when it’s off:

And there will be one in the task bar when MeowBit is running and you click on certain components:

…and then there’s this delightful little fellow in the system tray:

All of these will open the program interface.

GENERAL TIPS AND NOTES ON INSTALLING:
–MeowBit install will require a reboot if Microsoft .Net 4.0 is not already installed

–If you have trouble getting the Namecoin wallet to connect on a new installation of windows; if it seems stuck and won’t update, close the wallet, reboot your computer and restart the wallet, then it should begin updating.

MeowBit auto-starts at Windows start-up, this can be changed using the start-up folder. Info for Windows 7 and 8 here:

To work seamlessly, you’d also have to set Namecoin wallet to start at start-up:

MORE ADVANCED TROUBLESHOOTING, AND TECH SUPPORT FROM US:
Please leave a clear and detailed comment on our help forum if you have any issues with any aspect of running MeowBit. We like bug reports.

If you have problems getting MeowBit to work, please post on the forum or e-mail to us:
–the text in latest log file.

You can get the log file by clicking on the Kitty icon on the desktop to open the MeowBit Monitor, then click Settings in the lower left, then tick mark Enable Logging, then click Copy Latest Log.

NOTE: There may be personal info in the logs (i.p. address, operating system, sites you visited, etc.), but unlike the NSA and your ISP, we WILL delete them as soon as we’re done analyzing them. Unless you post them on our forum, which we do encourage, as we can group-source solutions.
And just tell us how it works on your end please.

But we also like to hear from you when things go well and if you enjoy MeowBit! Comments aren’t just for bug reports! And if you enjoy MeowBit, please, TELL TWO FRIENDS!

NOTE: You’ll want to un-tick “Enable Logging” after you solve your issues, because the logs are extensive and will fill up space pretty fast.

If you get a message that says “Namecoin config updated. restart wallet”, restart wallet and wait a few minutes.

It can take 7-10 minutes to fully open. A new wallet is coming soon that will take MUCH less time to open. And it also has to update. That amount of time will depend on how long since your last update. You’ll get a green check mark in the bottom right of the wallet when it’s fully updated.

You may have to be patient the first time or two. If after ten minutes you have green lights but cannot surf Dot-Bot, reboot your browser, or close your browser, open another browser and try it.

It can take several minutes after rebooting to have connections, or even to have the wallet online (indicated by a green check mark in the lower right of the wallet.) There is a planned update to the wallet to make it much faster.

Ipv6 issue:

If your local network (LAN) is running IPv6 or if you have “Internet accelerator” apps that may emulate IPv6, you may have trouble getting on Dot-Bit at all. We are looking into this and will put up a blog post, and add the info here, when we find out. A temporary fix might be disabling IPv6 in your router or on your network adapter. Future version of MeowBit should not have this issue.

Hotspot Issue

MeowBit may not work if you have Windows hotspot sharing enabled.

Alternate Blockchain Location Issue

Effecting MeowBit versions through v 0.4.5189.20512: If your Namecoin wallet data is in a custom location, MeowBit will not work. This issue will be fixed in the next version.

VPN issue:

MeowBit doesn’t currently work well while using a VPN. We will fix this in a later version. It will either work where .bit sites don’t work but .com do, or vs. versa, or it will reset your DNS settings to 127.0.0.1 localhost, and you won’t be able to reach any websites. If that happens, just hit “Stop Service” in MeowBit, that should restore the DNS settings. If that doesn’t work you’ll have to manually set them back to automatic:

“Open Network Connections by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type Adapter, and then, under Network and Sharing Center, click View network connections. (Or click “Local Area Connection” on the middle right below the globe.)

Right-click the connection that you want to change, and then click Properties. If you’re prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Click the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, single-click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and then click Properties.” Set to “Detect Automatically” and hit Save” and exit.

Now why in the world would you want to do that? Well, we can’t fathom why you would. That’s like getting the first good time machine and trading it in for a horse and buggy. But if you like that retro pre-Dot-Bit square-granny web experience and don’t want to bother with the path to the future, MeowBit is easy to uninstall:

You do not need to push “stop service.” (If you do not it may require a reboot.)

Use the MeowBit uninstaller. Go to Star/All Programs/MeowBit/Uninstall:

Or you can use the Windows uninstaller: Control Panel / Programs and Features / MeowBit, and uninstall.

If you get this window,

Hit “OK”,

Then go back to navigating the Central Scrutinizer-controlled old-timey web the way Thomas Jefferson did.

Peace!

–Michael W. Dean

(Some pages on this site, and some parts of our promo video, contain some text from the FreeSpeechMe site. That site was written by MWD with some help from Jeremy Rand. That site is also licensed CC BY 3.0. MeowBit contains NO code from FreeSpeechMe. FreeSpeechMe is good code, but we started from scratch for MeowBit. And FreeSpeechMe only works for Firefox. MeowBit works for everything on your computer.)

MeowBit.com and MeowBit.bit is Creative Commons Attribution licensed. Please share, excerpt, remix, and do with as you please. You can do this without specific permission, as long as you credit and link this site.